D.C. Buzz: `Fix NICS’ gun legislation introduced

By Dan Freedman

Updated 3:35 pm, Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Photo: Gary Fountain / Gary Fountain /For The Chronicle

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Linda McMahon, the 25th Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, during a tour of Tejas Tubular with plant manager Karthik Nagarajan. (For the Houston Chronicle/Gary Fountain, October 11, 2017)

Linda McMahon, the 25th Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, during a tour of Tejas Tubular with plant manager Karthik Nagarajan. (For the Houston Chronicle/Gary Fountain, October 11, 2017)

There’s a “we’ve seen this movie before’’ quality to the hopes of Connecticut Democrats that, finally, a mass-shooting is so horrific that even pro-NRA Republicans see the need for gun-related legislation.

It didn’t happen after Sandy Hook Elementary School. It didn’t happen after Orlando. And it didn’t happen after Las Vegas. But the mass-shooting at a Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, might have tipped the scale — especially since Texas lawmakers are the most vociferous advocates of gun rights.

``Fix NICS’’ has been introduced in the Senate by Connecticut’s Sen. Chris Murphy and Senate Majority Whip Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and in the House by Rep. Elizabeth Esty and (among others) Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas.

Technically it is a patch to the existing FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), so the pro-Second-Amendment side of the argument doesn’t go back on its ``enforce the laws on the books’’ mantra. And even the NRA and Newtown-based National Shooting Sports Foundation had kind words to say about it.

But does that mean it’s a slam dunk on Capitol Hill, where many Republicans from pro-gun Red States and elsewhere see any law that reins in guns as a step down a slippery slope?

``I’m guardedly optimistic,’’ said Esty.

The NICS system has succeeded in denying 2 million gun purchases to unqualified buyers, Esty said. But at times shooters like Air Force veteran Devin P. Kelley in Sutherland Springs fall through the cracks because entities like the Air Force should submit negative information to NICS, but often don’t.

``If there’s one thing that everybody can and should agree on, it’s that the background-check system works pretty well — when the records are there,’’ Esty said.

But the NRA and NSSF expressed concern after the Las Vegas shooting over the legality of bumpstock devices, which turn semi-automatic rifles into virtual machine guns. Since the shooting on Oct. 1, nothing has happened.

``So we’ll see,’’ said Esty.

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This has not been a good week for powerful men, especially in the media and on Capitol Hill. Charlie Rose, Sen. Al Franken, Glenn Thrush of the New York Times, veteran Rep. John Conyers — seems they’re dropping like flies amid women coming forward and accusing them of often-gross acts of sexual abuse.

So when Mr. Probity himself, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, found himself in the crosshairs, you could be forgiven for thinking to yourself, ``say it ain’t so.’’

But, of course, as we now know, the charge of abuse by Blumenthal in 1979 was the work of a bot — and a bot that can’t spell and writes in weird syntax, at that.

The bot evidently hijacked an existing account of a Houston woman. The poseur claimed to be from ``Chesire, Connecticut.’’

Seems totally nuts — but for Blumenthal it was no laughing matter.

``This incident was clearly and immediately a malicious fiction, from the moment I first heard about it,’’ Blumenthal said in an interview, understandably tense at the thought that even a cyberspace phantom would accuse him of such a thing.

But didn’t he have a feeling that maybe somehow, somewhere in his long-ago past, maybe someone might have misinterpreted some gesture or words as a hostile act? Even for a nanosecond?

``The answer is no,’’ Blumenthal said bluntly. ``From the first moment I heard about it, I knew it was a hoax.’’

His only residual concern, Blumenthal said, is that such a hoax should not be a detriment to all those coming forward with complaints of abuse by men in high places.

What about those behind the bot? Who are they? Someone overseas with less-than-perfect command of English? Will they be caught, or at least identified?

``We are considering all the options available,’’ Blumenthal said, a bit cryptically. ``I’m not going to speculate on the source.’’

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If nothing else, Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon has come a long way since the WWE days when she slapped down her daughter Stephanie in the ring and, on occasion, got decked herself. (Yes, it was scripted — and all in the family, since Stephanie left the ring to become WWE’s chief brand officer.)

But there’s no arguing with the success of the Stamford-based wrestling mega-giant, and that’s evidently what President Trump sought out in selecting an SBA administrator.

``He said he wanted someone who had built a business from the ground up, had experienced successes and failures, and could walk the walk and talk the talk about small business,’’ said McMahon in a brief interview after a White House tax event with state and local officials.

McMahon, 69, said she is ``thoroughly enjoying my job at SBA. It is in my wheelhouse.’’

So far she’s traveled to 22 states to advocate for small business and entrepreneurship. And she is a major advocate for the Trump-GOP tax plan slowly working its way through Congress — though its final hurdle in the Senate remains a known unknown.

During her confirmation hearing back in January, McMahon made a point of telling senators about the bankruptcy in 1976 that beset her and her husband Vince. The story, she said, comes in handy as she travels around and gives pep talks to small-business owners not entirely certain of survival.

``I say `I get where you’re coming from,’ and `I’ve been bankrupt and lost everything,’’’ she said. ``Most entrepreneurs need to understand that it’s not how you fall, it’s how you get up. And that’s a good message to leave them with.’’